Sunday, September 26, 2010

Moo-less Chocolate Pie

I want to start off this post by admitting that I had kind of a baking fail in preparation for this recipe. I was planning on making this chocolate pie, but I thought it would be cute to make little individual pies using a muffin tin to create mini graham cracker crusts. Everything was going well until I took the crusts out of my muffin tin and found that the lining of my muffin tin had come out on my crusts. Boo. Poor little inedible pie crusts. And now I have to buy a new muffin tin.

I had already purchased my ingredients for this recipe and was really in the mood to make it. So, I had to break down and purchase a pre-made crust.

Elves to the rescue!

Now that I had my crust situation figured out, I could start making my "moo-less" (as Alton Brown calls it) chocolate pie. I wanted to try this recipe because I don't drink milk products (I think I'm lactose intolerant) and wanted to see what baking with tofu would be like since I eat so much of it, ah the life of a vegetarian.

Why is it "moo-less" you ask? Well for starters, it uses tofu instead of milk or egg to thicken it. And two, instead of using semi-sweet chocolate chips that contain milk products, I used carob chips. For those of you that don't know what carob chips are, here is your Wiki definition:

Carob is an evergreen plant native to the Mediterranean region, but it now grows in other locations, like California, as well. The names comes from the Arabic term for "pod," due to the plant's flat and brown pods. The beans insides the pod are dried, roasted and ground to produce carob powder.

Carob chips are an edible product, similar to chocolate chips, made from carob. They are used in baking and in trail mixes, often serving as a substitute for chocolate chips. The color is the same as that of dark chocolate, although the taste is markedly different, with slightly nutty and bitter overtones. Carob chips are a safe chocolate alternative to use in treats and baked goods for dogs.

I know I didn't bake anything in this recipe, but I still figured I could use this pie for the blog. It was sort of baking, well I did bake, but it backfired on me. The process for making this pie was fairly easy. Melt chocolate and then blend.

Then poor into pie crust.

I would suggest making sure you drain the tofu really well. Otherwise it will get runny and now pudding like. I haven't gotten to taste it yet because it needs to set for 2 hours. But look for an update on the taste. However, I did lick the inside of the blender jar and it was delicious! Rich, chocolaty, with just a hit of my favorite ingredient...Kahlua!

Now all I need is some ice, vodka, and soy milk and we can have Sarah-style white Russians!

1. Drain tofu thoroughly. Place tofu between 2 layers of paper towels and press down gently. Repeat if necessary.

2. Create a double boiler by placing a small saucepan with 2 inches of water in it over a low flame until simmering. Place a metal or glass bowl over top of saucepan, making sure bottom of bowl does not touch the water.

3. Melt carob chops and Kahlua in double boiler. Stir in vanilla once carob is melted. Take off of the heat.

4. In a blender, combine carob mixture and tofu. Blend until creamy and consistent color (should be a light chocolate brown).